


That's Just the Way Life Plays Out

by Silvertounge



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2015-11-29
Packaged: 2018-04-27 02:23:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5029996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvertounge/pseuds/Silvertounge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce has spent the years after the accident alone and in self-isolation. He's started to come out of his shell more and more,but when he happens to run into an old friend from his past his world is shaken up and he's not sure he would want it any other way.<br/>Btuce and Original Character</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In the Beginning there was the Wrong Textbook

The clock on the wall shouted out its song messily to the empty classroom, it’s cries—the sound grated her ears—echoed off deserted desks and barren walls.

Being early for class was one of the worst decisions she’d ever made in her life. Kathryn had half a mind to kill her roommate for waking them both up early on accident. Pale fingers flipped through the pages of her book casually, Chinese flew by in a blur. Third year was hard enough without being sleep deprived for lecture on top of everything else.

The door opened and closed just as quickly, the motion only made known by a light click, the wheels of a nearby desk whirred softly. She turned her head slowly and was greeted by the sight of the cutest man she had never seen before in this class.

Curly brown strands stuck up this way and that in messy little cowlicks, dark eyes were glazed with sleep as he rested his head on his textbook silently. He must have woken up too early as well; none of the eight AM classes would be done in time for him to make this class.

She couldn’t help but follow his chaotic curls down to where they rested on his textbook. He was cute—she was trying not to stare too long, but she could feel her eyes focusing in and out—and he…...had the wrong textbook.

It was too early for this mess. Honestly, she should lay her head on her own book and try to sleep out the remaining half hour she had until the professor arrived.

But they had a dictation today and having the wrong textbook could mean having the wrong vocabulary list.

“Um…” he didn’t look up. She tried again, voice raising just a bit higher in the relative silence of the empty room.

“Yo!”

The man started. Nearly falling from his chair before turning to look at her, face flushed an adorable shade of pink, “Yes?” He had a pleasant voice –gravely pits and falls smoothed over just so like following a mountain road moving in between paved and unpaved stretches of highway—she wanted to hear him speak more.

“You have the wrong edition of the textbook.” She held hers up a bit apologetically, “we’re supposed to have the 3rd edition, but you have the 2nd.”

“Are you serious?”

His eyes widened almost comically behind wireframes, he scanned the cover of the book mouth falling open in disbelief, “This is what the bookstore had.”

“It can’t be too bad.”

It was probably a total mess.

She dared to pull her desk closer, wheels sliding across the floor with the barest hint of effort.

“You might only be missing a word or two for the entire lesson.”

“You think so?” The poor guy seemed overtly nervous, his hands were clenching the edge of his desk and she could barely keep track of how quickly his eyes flicked back and forth between his textbook and hers.

“Yeah let’s just…” she flipped his book open, brushing his arm as she did. The second her arm made contact with his he stiffened, body moving subtly away like she’d managed to burn him.

He looked embarrassed about the whole thing like he hadn’t meant to move back the way he had. She wasn’t about to kick someone when they were down, and for both of their sakes steered the conversation to the vocabulary lists spread out before them.

“Look,” she traced her finger over a couple characters, “there’s only two here you’re missing. We’ve got time to kill before the professor gets here; just borrow my book until class starts.”

It wasn’t hard—now that she knew not to do it—to pass him the book without touching him at all.

The reward for her troubles was a lopsided smile, lighting up his eyes from behind the lenses that caught on the fluorescent lights every time he moved.

“Are you sure?”

A small smile crossed her own face, daring to meet his here in this empty room, “I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t sure.”

Brown eyes searched her face, he flushed again before leaning over the book and hiding his face in it as he began to scribble characters into his notebook rapidly.

Kathryn scooched her desk a bit away and pulled out her physics book begrudgingly. She loved the subject but she hated the men—they were more like crows pecking and pecking away at exposed flesh searching for their piece of until it was gone; utterly consumed under the onslaught—they made it difficult for her to sit through classes like she actually belonged there.

Equations and questions were scrawled hastily into the margins of her book, she was well past being done with the homework, but she loved doing the extra questions. Took some enjoyment out of the simplicity of being right or wrong.

“You’re working those out pretty quickly.”

It was her turn to jump, she turned and was met with a curious stare watching her progress over the paper. Her Chinese textbook was closed on his desk, he must have already finished while she was busy dorking around.

“I took college physics classes in high school, so this course is just for fun.”

“It’s not your major?” He seemed a bit disappointed, and she humored him with a bemused smile.

“I’m an education major. Chinese and English, I want to be a professor eventually.”

He smiled a bit, fingers moving nervously over the bottom hem of his worn t-shirt. Maybe he wanted to say something—his mouth opened and closed cutting off and reforming around words he wouldn’t let escape—but didn’t quite have the courage to.

“I’m Kathryn by the way. I’m a junior.”

She refrained from holding out her hand, having guessed by his earlier reaction that he didn’t care much for being touched.

The man looked at her for a couple moments, like he was surprised by the fact that she’d found him interesting, or worth an introduction—dark thoughts clouded behind wireframes, caged into his eyes by the boundaries around them—before giving her one of the happiest smiles she’d seen in a long time.

“I’m Bruce Banner,” he held out his hand nervously the fingers shook slightly in the open air, he was obviously nervous but his smile only widened when she shook it firmly, “I’m actually in my last year of grad school I tested into this class level.”

Kathryn whistled lowly, laughing softly when he ducked his head bashfully.

“So you don’t know how the class works or anything do you?”

Steady fingers pushed wireframes back into place around his eyes, he shook his head slowly, “No. I was actually hoping that it would be fairly easy to pick up.”

She nodded a bit, pursing her lips in thought before ripping a small piece of paper out of her notebook, the pencil scribbled over it furiously before she found the ability to hand it over to him, “This might be presumptuous, but that’s my cell and my email. If you have any questions about the class just hit me up ok?”

His fingers rested inches from hers where they both held the scrap of paper, he looked at it incredulously before shifting his focus back to her; brown eyes warm, “Are you sure you want to give me this?”

She felt almost frozen under that gaze. He somehow commanded attention while conveying a sense of security. She smiled slowly, leaning in conspiratorially, “I already told you, didn’t I? I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t.”

They spent the rest of the school year sitting near each other in class, casting furtive glances when they caught each other’s eyes. They exchanged texts riddled with physics and Chinese, and the vaguest sense of familiarity.

For all that they talked, and planned, and met they never managed to move beyond some tentative almost awkward form of courtship. Only once—the rough pad of his thumb had caught on her lower lip his brown eyes zeroing in on the flesh as he ran his own over it carefully—did they almost break out of the cages they’d placed around their relationship.  

No, they were not brave; they let their feelings play out in texts and emails, in glances and smiles, in brushes and bumps.

It was a sharp shock—unpleasant and painful reminiscent of jumping into the chill of the ocean from the top of a warm cliff—when she walked into class the next year and Bruce wasn’t there waiting for her with another new physics theory, or in his seat ready to mess around in Chinese conversations that went over their classmates’ heads.

All she was afforded at the end of that day was a text that said good luck, the acrid taste of tears in the back of her throat, and the feeling that she’d missed out on something that could have been wonderful if they hadn’t been too afraid to try.


	2. Let's Have Some Awkward Coffee

She was 34 years old and at a nightclub in New York. The situation might not have been so ridiculous to her if she didn’t have to show up to work the next day to teach afternoon classes. Her friends had insisted on celebrating her new part time job translating documents into Chinese for Stark industries and she’d been completely unable to tell them no; she here she was. The drink in her hand was cold and perspiring slowly, rivets of icy water slid down her fingers as she stood in a corner staring out into the crowd with a slight frown stitched to her face.

She’d only been back in America for a couple weeks, having spent the last ten years of her life teaching English in Jinan and Beijing. It was a bit depressing that coming home hadn’t really seemed like coming home. Everything was so odd, the loud clatter of English conversation buzzing around her from the multitudes of people was foreign to her now. Going to restaurants was stressful, she couldn’t remember what she’d liked eating in America after ten years and the only “American” food she’d eaten in China was MacDonald’s. Her mannerisms were wrong now too, the things she did, the way she acted, the food she ate, what she used to eat it with; it was all wrong now. 

She’d only moved back because her parents were getting older, and a sense of guilt had engulfed her at the idea of them dying with her across an ocean and never really seeing them again. Which was ironic because instead of moving back to Indiana with them, she’d taken a job at a prestigious private high school in New York and a part time job at Stark industries on top of that. So she wasn’t actually seeing her parents any more than she’d had in China, but the lessened distance seemed to appease her mom. Kathryn sighed and moved out of the way of a couple who looked like their faces had been welded together. She took a sip of her drink, letting the bitter sweetness cover her tongue, eliciting a pleased grin from her. She definitely didn’t miss Baijiu. 

She moved through the pulsing crowd, awkwardly sipping her drink and giving her friends a sickly cheerful grin whenever she spotted them. She hated this, she almost hated them and she just wanted to go home and read some books. It just wasn’t meant to be, she was a few feet from the bar when a solid arm wrapped itself around her shoulder firmly. She stiffened, mentally preparing herself to tell some asshole off.

“I didn’t think I’d be seeing you out of work so soon kid.”

“Neither did I Mr. Stark,” she turned to face him with a raised brow and a pleased smile, “I’m also not a kid. You’re only a handful of years older than me.”

He gave her a wide, charismatic smile and steered her toward the bar with him, “I’m still older than you, and it’s Tony, not Mr. Stark. We’re not at work now are we?”

“No I don’t suppose we are,” she sipped her drink slowly, wondering why her boss was even paying much attention to her. Then again Tony Stark was legendary for doing things people didn’t expect of him.

“I want you to meet a couple friends of mine Kat,” she cringed at the nickname and resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him when he laughed, “you’re a pretty chill woman, and I think you’ll get along with them fairly well.”

He was steering them toward a small group congregated at the edge of the bar. There were four men and one smaller woman, the majority were laughing ad throwing back drinks with a sense of ease. There was one shorter man, who’s back was to her, and if Kathryn had been looking at his face she would have put money down on him feeling out of place. His shoulders were tense, and he hunched in on himself like he was trying to take up as little space as possible. Unlike the other four he had no drink, and his clothing was baggier and more worn. 

Something clicked in her head and she froze up pulling her employer to a stop on the floor, “Are those the Avengers?”

Tony gave her a playful grin nodding delightedly, “Indeed they are, and you my dear employee are about to meet them.”

“No that’s….” she wished she hadn’t have drunken her drink. Her stomach twisted tightly and she pulled on a short curl nervously. She really couldn’t meet these people. She wasn’t nearly…anything enough to meet them. She was just an out of place school teacher, forced to come to a club and celebrate a job she’d never really intended to have.

“They won’t bite,” his brown eye grew serious, “I promise, it’ll be fun. You’re a riot and damn good at what you do,” he seemed to read her insecurities rather well, pulling her close I a friendly way, “if you want to duck out then you can.”

She nodded slowly, deciding that this was something she could do, at the very least, for her students. Maybe they’d even let her take a picture and then she could tell her students about it tomorrow during classes. It didn’t have much to do with teaching Chinese, but it would be a fun way to introduce new words to the class. 

“Alright Tony.”

‘That’s a girl,” he pulled her over to the group quickly, almost thrusting her out in front of him like some kind of offering, “My fellow heroes, this here is my new employee,” they all turned to face her, and she tried to keep her eyes on the floor, or at least away from their faces, “She’s a new translator for the company and she has the sharpest tongue on the international floors that I have ever seen.”

Kathryn gave a nervous little wave, smiling weakly as they all stared down at her silently. The biggest one thrust his hand out at her a wide smile on his face, he shook her hand enthusiastically nearly ripping her arm from the socket.

“It is a great honor to meet someone who works for our dear Anthony. I am Thor son of Odin, and I welcome you to drink with us this fine night.”

“Thanks,” Kathryn smiled a bit more confidently, and let each of them introduce themselves in turn. Until they got to the last one, the one who had seem so tense to her before. There was something about his face that seemed eerily familiar, like she’d seen him in more than some random newspaper.

Tony threw an arm around the man, making him stumble a bit as he was pulled closer to the eccentric billionaire, “And this shy dork is Bruce Banner.”

The man held his hand out almost begrudgingly, a nervous smile was forming on his face, but Kathryn could only stare at his outstretched hand silently. The smile fell instantly and he started to pull his hand back to himself with a self-conscious look.

“Oh my God….” Kathryn’s brain finally lit up with the answer to his familiar face, “It’s you.”

The group stared at her incredulously, while Bruce began to turn the most adorable, familiar shade of red she’d ever seen in her life. 

Captain America looked between the two of them, hands holding his belt and standing like he expected her to be a threat, “Mind explaining to us what you mean?”

“Yeah I,” Kathryn laughed, “I just haven’t seen you for almost 12 years.” It was so ridiculous that she would once again run into this man by chance, after having had such a brief time with him once before. Now that she really looked he was definitely the same as before. He looked so much older and, she thought to herself, a lot more handsome. There was the faint hint of grey at his temples and threading through his unruly curls, and those expressive brown eyes were framed by a set of wire rims.

“You went to my college,” Bruce frowned for a moment, brows furrowed in thought as she spoke, “I let you borrow my Chinese textbook the first day of class. You had the wrong edition.”

Bruce stared at her for a few moments, before his lips curled up at the corners in recognition, “I remember. You…wow...” He looked just as surprised as she felt, “You gave me your number and helped me out whenever I was too stupid to actually study for that class.”

She resisted the overwhelming urge to hug him, remembering how much being touched had seemed to bother him at the time. Bruce moved toward her first and engulfed her in a gently, friendly hug that she returned almost instantly, letting him pull away when he felt he needed to. 

His hands lingered on her arms for a few moments before he dropped them to the side with a warm smile, “You look almost the same as that class. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it right away,” he pushed his glasses up nervously, smiling shyly as he spoke, “you’re still just as pretty as then you know. Your hair is just shorter.”

They both blushed at his words. He almost looked like he regretted saying it, he curled a bit like he expected to be berated but she only laughed, “You’re looking pretty handsome too Bruce,” she smiled widely surprised at just how happy she was to see him. Maybe it was just the idea of having something familiar in a place that was not so unfamiliar, or maybe she’d never really let go of what they could have had, either way she was happier than she’d been all night. 

“I uh…” he rubbed the back of his head both of them ignoring the incredulous looks his teammates were giving him, “I’m not really comfortable in these types of places,” he gestured to the writhing bodies and copious amounts of alcohol vaguely, “I don’t want to pull you away from your friend or anything but if you’re not busy,” he was getting redder and redder as he spoke, he almost stumbled over his words, “we could go somewhere else and catch up?” He gave her a hopeful look, chocolate eyes peering at her from over wire rims.

“I actually really hate nightclubs and I would really, really like to go somewhere else with you.” She didn’t even try to act like she needed to think about it, “I don’t really know what all there is around here though, I’ve only been here for a couple weeks.”

Bruce smiled, “Coffee?”

“Excellent.”

They both stared at each other for a few moments, before laughing awkwardly and moving together out of the club, completely forgetting to stay goodbye to the group of heroes whose chins were practically touching the floor.

The warm New York air whipped around them gently, ruffling their hair and pulling them along as Bruce led her a few blocks down to a quiet little coffee shop owned by an elderly black woman and her husband. Bruce and Kathryn sat down in a booth by the window silently, looking at each other quietly for a few moments. They looked at each other, then adverted their eyes when they caught the other watching them. Outside of the small euphoric bubble of feeling they’d had in the club they had no idea what to say to each other at all. 

The owner shuffled forward and set their drinks down on the table gently, “Y’all need anything else?” Her kind brown eyes smiled at them gently and they shook their heads lightly, staring into the mouths of their cups for lack of any real words to say.

She watched them for a long moment, dark brow climbing above her eye in amusement. She patted Bruce’s shoulder gently, and stage whispered conspiratorially, “All you got to do is talk to the pretty girl boy. Just tell her how lovely her eyes are.” She bestowed a teasing wink on them then shuffled off contently to work in the back, where she could watch the two of them peacefully.

“Well…” Bruce grinned at her, “Your eyes are very lovely.” 

Laughter welled inside her and she bit her lip to stifle it, then made the mistake of looking up at his face. The second their eyes met, they both burst out laughing like children. Their bodies shook while their eyes watered, their bodies hunched over into each other’s space and with the limited room of the table they ended up forehead to forehead laughing with uninhibited mirth.

Kathryn smiled warmly, gathering her breath and speaking once she was able to breathe again, “Why thank you. I put these ones in just for this occasion.”

They chuckled again, eyes crinkling with mirth as they sipped their drinks. Bruce ran his hand through his errant curls, “I, ah,” he was turning red again, “I meant what I said earlier, you really do look beautiful.”

A warm flush fell over her cheeks, tinting her pale skin with a soft dusting of rose hue. She shook her head a bit, smiling despite herself, “I don’t think so. Besides earlier you said pretty.”

His brown eyes lit up for a moment and he leaned in toward her, all hint of earlier shyness gone from his face, “I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t serious.”

It was almost like being back in that empty classroom, and trying to convince him she really did mean it when she offered him her book to use and her number to call. There was something so innocently earnest in her eyes that she couldn’t help but believe him. She’d never thought of herself as an attractive woman, her hair was too curly, her figure too chubby, her legs too short; if Bruce Banner wanted to think she was beautiful than who was she to argue?

“Thank you.”

“How have you been for the past couple years?” His smile widened on couple, as if it were two instead of 12 years that had gone by.

“I’ve actually been living in China since I graduated,” she stirred her finger through the whipped cream in her drink lips turning up in contentment at the life she had lead, “I was teaching English. First in Beijing, then in Jinan.”

“You were pretty good at the language. You would have been there, what, ten years?” At her nod he continued, “Why’d you come back here?”

She snorted into her drink, taking a small sip, “Filial piety.” She thought he looked pretty adorable confused, but decide to put him out of his misery, “My parents are getting older, and my mom hated the fact that I was so far away. So I applied for a job, packed up and came to the states to teach. I had also applied for a part time translation position with Stark Industries and got it.”

Brown eyes studied her face for a few moments, he pushed his glasses up slowly, smiling a bit warily, “You don’t seem too…happy to be back.”

Kathryn shrugged a bit despondently. She didn’t really know how to phrase it in a way that would make sense outside of her own mind. 

“America isn’t home anymore. I have to let it become home again.”

A dark, depressed look crossed over his face, “I understand.” His husky voice was quiet, and he dared to brush a finger against hers lightly, the watch on his wrist beeped softly and he pulled back. “I’m sorry it wasn’t an easy transition back.”

“What about you? I know a little bit about what you’ve done after our Chinese class,” she’d thought about him from time to time. Usually when his name was in the news for some cutting edge research, and she’d always felt a small thrill at the idea that she had known him before all of his brilliance came to light. He hadn’t been in any paper, or research journals for a long time, and gradually he’d slipped from her mind.

“I traveled around a bit,” his hands clenched imperceptibly, “I actually work for Tony too. I live with the gang in Stark tower.”

Kathryn bit her lip and looked at his hands, “Were you here during the whole New York incident?”

“Yeah…” he seemed to be drawing away a bit. Like there was some other big thing going on that he didn’t want to talk with her about.

The silence that engulfed them the second time was a cloud of emotion. Questioning silence from her, and an almost bitter silence from him.

“I don’t know if I could live with Tony.” Whatever was going on was his business, and she wasn’t ready to stop talking to him yet, “I’ve met him a couple of times and he seemed like a bit of a handful.”

“Oh you have no idea,” he smiled widely, “he keeps trying to open up to me and I keep having to tell him I’m not that kind of doctor,” they chuckled amicably, “he’s a good friend though, and a brilliant scientist. I can do so many things with the technology he’s given me. There’s so much more we can do in the fields of gamma research and applied physics…” 

He went on one of the most interesting tirades she’d ever listened to. Admittedly she only understood a small handful of what was coming out of his mouth, but what she did understand was brilliant and she had no doubt that Bruce Banner was a category all his own on the brilliance scale. It was like being given a glimpse into a new dimension, one that she couldn’t fully step into but could appreciate the beauty of. It was amusing to her that a mere school teacher would get to sit as equals with someone like him. Kathryn knew she was good at what she did, she’d loved Chinese since first taking it and teaching was something that still gave her great pleasure in life, but she was nowhere near as smart as the man in front of her. 

They finished their coffees while he talked and she questioned, and he questioned and she explained. The flow of give and take swelled naturally, and equally between them. Through the course of a couple hours they had shifted from topics as complex as the socioeconomic status of minority peoples in china, and how gamma radiation played into molecular building processes, and as simple as their favorite band, and how much they hated New York crowds but loved the opportunities available there. 

Bruce insisted on paying for the drinks, and Kathryn got him back by leaving the tip. They thanked the owners and wandered out into the cool night air. They stood side by side for a few moments watching people walk by in busy hives of activity. 

“Thank you.”

A confused smile sprouted on her face and she turned to look at him, “What for?”

He shrugged, a content grin reaching his expressive eyes, “For this. I,” his smile fell a bit, “actually I think I really needed this. You’re wonderful you know,” he muttered now, bashfully, “you always were. I understand why you became a teacher.”

“Don’t sell yourself short Bruce. You’re wonderful too,” he looked so self-conscious, like he wasn’t sure what to do with himself anymore, “To be honest I haven’t felt comfortable since coming back from China.” He listened intently, brown eyes never straying from her face, “Everything is wrong, and I can’t tell if it’s me or everything else. But this….” She curled her lips, nodding slightly, “this was right.”

Bruce pulled her close gently, hand wrapping around her wrist lightly as he pulled her toward him. His every action gave her ample time to escape, but she let herself be engulfed by him once again, this time his solid body blocking out the cool air and the active city around her. 

“I’m glad we did this then.”

“Me too.”

He released her just as slowly as he pulled her to him, taking the time to separate their bodies from each other’s space smoothly.

“Let me get your number,” he pulled his phone out, “we can have coffee again, but hopefully skip the awkward club meeting part.”

She grinned slyly, “Aww but that was my favorite part,” she looked at his phone, “are you sure you want my number?”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t.”

She took the phone from him and typed her number into a new slot slowly. A happy warmth curled in her chest as she handed the phone back to him. “So I can text you whenever I have any Chinese questions right?”

Bruce laughed lowly, hand brushing hers as he took the phone, “That’s right Kathryn.”

He hailed her a cab and waited until she was in it to walk away. She was halfway home when her phone buzzed out with a new text.

Your smile is just as beautiful as your eyes.


	3. Evasion

It didn’t really matter that she’d gone out and experienced a world bigger than New York City; Stark Industries made her feel inferior. It was all so modern and sleek. Sloping lines of gleaming steal, surrounded by gracefully arching panes of translucent glass. She was also fairly certain that everyone in the building was wearing clothing that would take her a month to buy. Chilly fingers tugged on an errant curl lightly, before moving it out of her line of vision. She slid her hands over the scratchy fabric of her old grey slacks, trying to will the nearly invisible wrinkles away. It didn’t really help that she’d been flirting with Bruce over text like a horny teenager; the idea of actually seeing him in person here, in this place, made her stomach clench painfully. Kathryn sighed and made her way through the tangled crowd of people loitering around the hallways. She wasn’t quite ready to see him again, a dark part of herself snidely reminded her that she wasn’t anywhere near his level of brilliance, or in the same social circle as he was. 

Kathryn tamped the thoughts down, and leafed through the loose pages of Chinese she had ready for Tony to pretend to read. She wasn’t sure he actually spoke Mandarin, but she had the feeling that even if he didn’t he’d just have Jarvis translate it out for him. Her mouth quirked up at one end, rich bastard. Brown eyes scanned the pages quickly from behind smudged glasses, her lips moved silently making sure that every aspect of what she’d written was correct. So far so good. She managed to make it to Tony’s office without running into anyone, or scattering her papers about the floor. She looked at the wooden doors nervously, chewing on her lip lightly as she mentally prepared herself to go in. It didn’t matter that he liked her outside of work, inside of work he was her boss. She needed this job to be able to afford living in New York, her teaching salary sadly wasn’t going to cut it. She fought down the rising wave of nerves gathering low in her stomach, and strode into Tony’s office confidently. 

“I think you ordered some papers boss,” she held the tiny stack up playfully laughing at the dumbfounded look smacked across his face.

“I gave that work to you less than a week ago,” he took them with a gob smacked expression, brows furrowing together in the middle; he looked as if he expected something weird and slimy to crawl out from between the even pages, “how did you manage to finish it already?”

“It’s the second week of school. I haven’t been able to give any of the kids much real work yet. So there’s nothing that I need to grade, and I have no life. So,” she nodded her head toward the stack in his hands, “your paperwork is done.”

He thumbed through them absently, muttering under his breath as he did. Kathryn stood there quietly, waiting for some kind of signal that she was allowed to leave the room. 

“Why not hang out with Bruce if you have so much free time?”

A low sigh made its way from the hollow part of her chest, filling her lungs slowly as she let it out of herself quickly. Leave it to Tony Stark to know too much about everything, especially this. Truth be told she didn’t know why she didn’t try and meet with Bruce again. They’d had a wonderful time, they’d been flirting like children over text; she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Eventually he’d get bored of her and move on. It was inevitable, and didn’t really have anything to do with her. She knew she was a pretty fun person to be around, fiercely intelligent in her fields and her interests. She just didn’t match up with a world class scientist. She’d glanced through some of Tony and Bruce’s work once before on a whim, and could barely keep up with the base theories of what they’d done. Bruce existed in a different sphere of life than she did; outside of that one college class they didn’t have much in common.

“Yoohoo,” Tony waved his hand a bit theatrically, “you still here with us?”

“I don’t have that much free time,” she pointed to the papers with a slight grin on her face, “I’ve been doing your work haven’t I?”

“Evasion,” he pointed a pen at her, “this paperwork didn’t need to be done until next week. So why no Bruce?”

“I…” she pushed her glasses up her nose, shrugging lightly as she did, “Not sure.”

“He’s really happy about this whole thing with you two,” Kathryn listened more intently as Tony’s voice became less light hearted and more serious, “He keeps looking at his phone with this stupid ass smile on his face.” Tony looked at her quietly, “Just…whatever you do be nice about it? Bruce has had a pretty damn hard time of it.”

Kathryn thought back to first meeting him that day in class, how he’d flinched away from touch. To the club where he seemed to keep looking anywhere but her eyes, only meeting them once they’d established a rapport with each other. He obviously had a bad time of it somewhere along the line, maybe even multiple somewheres. Tony’s voice, however, gave her pause. Something in his voice made it sound like there was a bigger something he was referring to.

“Look, we’re both adults. If something happens then it happens, but if it doesn’t maybe it’s for the better don’t you think? We’ve got pretty different things going on, and different interests.” She gave Tony a half assed smile, wanting more than anything to get away from this conversation, “Don’t you think he’ll get bored of me?”

Tony shook his head, “I don’t think he will or would. Just give it a go?” He gave her the biggest puppy eyes she’d ever seen on a grown man, “We all just want to see him happy.”

Kathryn nodded slowly, motioning toward the door a bit awkwardly, “I’m going to go now. Nice talk, glad we had it.”

Tony shooed her out playfully, moving back to his desk and what looked oddly like handmade blueprints. It gave her the out she needed to slip quietly through the office down, back out in to the hustle and bustle of the overtly modern building. 

She took a stabilizing breath, for a moment feeling like she was back in the ever moving crowds of Beijing, before moving into the flow of people carefully. Tony really was too much, but he knew Bruce better than she did; if he said Bruce wouldn’t get bored with her then she had faith he actually wouldn’t. Not that it mattered much in a world where she was still too hesitant to actually ask him out for dinner. 

Kathryn kept her eyes on her feet, brow furrowed deeply as she thought through all her options. When had she started thinking through things so thoroughly? She used to leap into everything headfirst, damn the logistics. Was it Bruce, or was it the idea of how glamorous and smart his life must be that was holding her back? Either way, it wasn’t fair of her to make assumptions about what they would or wouldn’t be based on a persona she’d built for him in her head.

She pressed her thumb between her eyes firmly, letting out a low breath as she walked toward the open elevator doors. Right into a solid wall of person. The slippery soles of her new flats gave no traction on the slick, shiny, marble floor that made up the entirety of the ground beneath her feet. The momentum slid her feet across the marble, pulling her down backwards into what was going to be a rather painful fall to the merciless ground. A tight grip caught her wrist, as papers flew up into the air around her; she was swung in a small arc and pulled against a solid frame. Her head swam for a couple moments, dizziness made her unsteady, her fingers gripped a soft purple shirt tightly. 

“Are you alright?”

She looked up, right into the warm brown eyes of Bruce Banner. Her front was pressed tightly to his hip, his large hand spanned her lower back solidly. A bright smile spanned across his face the moment he recognized her, and it might have been her imagination, but she could have sworn the hand on her back pulled her even closer to his sturdy frame. 

“I…” an embarrassed smile curled across her face, “Yeah…I’m fine.” She didn’t know what to do with her hands, but didn’t want to untangle her fingers from the fabric of his shirt. Kathryn smoothed out a slight wrinkle at his wrist with her thumb, both of them completely ignoring the way the traffic of people had come to a stop around them.

“It’s good luck you dropped into me here,” he pushed her glasses up gently, “I had been meaning to ask if you wanted to see my lab, but I couldn’t quite muster up the courage.” Bruce’s voice took on a bashful edge and his free hand rubbed the back of his head as a flush spread across his neck and cheeks.

A devilish grin lifted the side of her mouth, “How do you know I won’t steal all your secrets and publish the work myself Dr. Banner?” She looked up at him impishly, “For all you know I could be a corporate spy.”

Bruce leaned closer, nose nearly brushing hers. His smile matched hers inch for inch in impishness, “Then I guess I’ll just have to keep a close eye on you.”

“Then I’d love to see your lab.”

“Great!” He let her go carefully, and her back was oddly cold without the warmth of his hand there to support her. “I just have to drop something off with Tony first and then we’ll head up.”

Kathryn pushed a wild curl out of her eyes nodding quickly, “I can wait here for you.”

“Why don’t you just tag along,” Bruce adjusted his glasses, and Kathryn caught him checking his watch almost covertly, a little frown tugging the corner of his mouth down slightly.

“I was just there actually, and I don’t want to interrupt,” she watched quietly as he rubbed his chest a bit absently, “I’ll just sit here.” She thought back to her conversation with Tony earlier, “Maybe… Just tell him I’m going up with you?”

Bruce nodded, serene smile back on his face. “Alright. It won’t be more than a minute.”

Brown eyes watched him walk away, a goofy smile slapped permanently across her face. All of her previous worries were forgotten in wake of being around the man once again. Pale fingers fiddled with the edge of her shirt happily, keeping her eyes to her hands as she waited for him to come back from Tony’s office. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of her feelings, but she was fairly certain her presence was welcomed by Bruce. He’d looked so shy and hopeful when he’d asked her to his lab. Her grin fell a bit, he’d looked so surprised when she’d accepted. He’d gone along with her teasing like he thought she was telling him no, and the light in his eyes at her acceptance nearly broke her heart. Bruce obviously wasn’t used to people accepting his offers, or maybe she was reading too much into it. Maybe it was just because whatever was going on between them was so new?

“I’m glad you took my advice China,” Kathryn’s head snapped up to see Tony and Bruce walking toward her, a small path clearing around them as the boss strode down his hallway.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Mr. Stark,” Kathryn stood, smoothing her shirt out with a smile, “I’ve already told Dr. Banner that I’m a corporate spy here to steal all your secrets.”

“Well if that’s the case,” Tony handed her a badge, “at least make it worth his while you know. I think there’s enough flat surfaces on those floors. Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” he wiggled his brows at her, “which means you can do basically everything.”

Bruce spluttered behind him, face beet red as Kathryn pinned the badge to her slacks, “I’ll try my best Mr. Stark.” She tapped the badge lightly, “What’s this for?”

“It lets you onto the higher floors,” Bruce gave her an embarrassed smile, cheeks still red from Tony’s teasing, “the doors wouldn’t open for either of us unless you have it.”

Tony tapped her nose lightly, causing her to go cross eyed for a moment, “It’s to keep corporate spies out.” 

“Got to keep the riff raff out.” 

Bruce rolled his eyes a bit, moving Tony out of the way lightly, “If you’re done harassing my friend here Tony, I think we’ll go.”

Tony gave him a childish pout, “I pay her a good salary to harass her.”

“It’s better than the one I make teaching that’s for sure,” she smiled at them, “but I’ll still quit and leave you a mountain of Chinese to translate yourself if you harass me too much.”

“Noted.” Tony waved them off with a bright grin, before turning and heading back to his office, stopping to flirt with half of the people he ran into along the way.

Kathryn followed Bruce back to the elevator, slipping inside as he slid his card through the reader and selected the floor. Bruce shuffled a bit, looking at his feet resolutely with a blank look on his face. His shoulder slumped in a bit, he seemed worried about something. It was just so odd that he could go from joking with Tony one minute to this. 

“What’s wrong?”

Bruce looked at her, not meeting her eyes and rubbed the back of his head, “It’s nothing really. I was just really forward with you when you fell.” His lips turned down, and his eyes fell back to the floor. His deep voice was low, “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I know contact like that and some of the things Tony said after are inappropriate.”

Silence filled he elevator, she blinked slowly, completely dumbfounded by what had just come out of his mouth. He looked like a scolded child, worse he looked like an abused child waiting for an undeserved punishment. Had she done something to make him think she was upset with him?

“Bruce…I,” she let out an incredulous laugh shaking her head, “Wow, okay. Ummm,” she pressed her palms together like a prayer, tips of her fingers pressed to her lips until she pointed her fingers at him, “Did I do something to make you feel like that?”

“No, no.” He looked panicked now, “You haven’t done anything wrong. It’s me, and I know it was completely out of li—“

She strode across the elevator, invading his space carefully. Kathryn straightened her back and looked him square in the eye, “I love what happened at the elevator. I like it when you act like that. It’s fun.” She smiled reassuringly, “I was all over you too Bruce, so if you’ve done something wrong then so have I.” An insecure half smile had made its way onto his face, “Look, I’ll tell you when something makes me uncomfortable. You’ve done nothing but make me happy so far. If you feel you were forward, just know that I liked it and was fine.” She gave him a serious look, fingers trailing up to catch his lightly; she squeezed his hand reassuringly, “Alright?”

He smiled warmly down at her nodding lightly, “Alright.”

She took a deep breath, then wrapped her arms around his waist lightly, letting her forehead rest against his shoulder carefully. He was quick to respond, wrapping his arms around her firmly pulling her body closer to his. His cheek came to rest on the top of her head hesitantly and she could faintly hear his heart beating.

“I enjoy it too,” his voice rumbled through his chest and she could feel his breath run through her hair, “I’m just not very good at any of this.”

She smiled against his shirt, bunching her fingers into the fabric between his shoulders, “Neither am I. I think you’re doing fine. A for effort A+ for results.”

He chuckled lowly squeezing her lightly, “Thank you.”

She pulled back from him slowly, fingers untwining and body separating from his as slowly as she could make it. It was nice being in his arms, he was big enough to shut the rest of the world out but just human enough that she wasn’t overwhelmed. Bruce kept their fingers locked together snugly, tugging her closer gently when she’d tried to disentangle their fingers. It suited her just fine, she didn’t mind holding his hand.

They walked through quiet, sterile halls slowly. Their footsteps echoed loudly, bouncing off the plain white wall seamlessly. Kathryn snuck peeks into lab windows as they went by them, fascinated by the teams of people doing things she couldn’t possible begin to explain. 

She watched over her shoulder enthralled by everything around her, “What type of experiments have you been doing?”

“Recently?” Bruce stopped at a door, letting go of her hand gently before swiping his card and letting it scan his thumb with a soft whir, “Gamma radiation, the effect it has on people and how to reverse it.” He sounded somber, not at all like she would have expected. He’d seemed so excited to show her the lab, maybe she’d read his emotions wrong?

“Why gamma?” Kathryn followed him in, glancing around with wide brown eyes. “I didn’t think it ever happened in large enough quantities to hurt anyone,” she gave him a teasing grin, “unless someone’s been hugging a radioactive isotope for comfort?”

Bruce rubbed the back of his head a boyish grin lighting up his face, “None of that here. I had started on it working with the military. They wanted to me to come up with something that would help with gamma decay, and the effects of exposure after its been introduced into an area,” a dark shadow crossed his face making Kathryn pause where she stood, “it didn’t really go the way I’d planned.”

He pulled a swivel chair over to a table, gesturing for her to sit down. He pushed the seat in gently when she’d gotten settled, fingers brushing her shoulders gently, moving away as he began to set up a microscope in front of her.

“Isn’t it like any other radiation sickness?”

“No,” Bruce finished setting it up leaning back against the table with his arms crossed when he did, “gamma sickness is at a higher level than normal radiation sickness. It causes damage at a cellular level and is more penetrating for one. At the very least you’re going to have genetic damage at a high level. Cancer is almost a definite.”

She nodded slowly, tapping her fingers on her knee slowly, “Okay….I understand,” she flashed him a bright smile, “So you’re trying to come up with a medicine that fixes it.”

“Right,” Bruce looked up at her for a moment, “I’m actually surprised you know so much about this. It’s a fairly complex topic.”

“Look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t just give me the spark notes version.” Rich laughter bubbled up from his chest and she let it wash over her for a few seconds. “I read a lot. I’ve read part of a doctoral thesis you put in, and another part of something you worked on with Tony.”

“It’s still impressive.” He brushed her hair out of her eyes gently, thumb coming to caress her cheek softly, “You really are amazing you know that? Most people wouldn’t even understand the spark notes version, let alone keep up.”

“I try.” A pleased smile crossed her face, “I like reading, but if you tried to give me anything more complicated than the basic topic I’d probably be lost.”

Bruce pushed a slide into the port carefully, looking through the lens and making minute adjustments silently, “Alright, come look at this.”

Kathryn stood up carefully, making sure not to jostle the equipment as she looked through the lens. The plate was full of red blood cells, floating around without a care in the world. They all looked fairly healthy to her, not that she’d ever really seen any outside of the one anatomy class she took in college.

Bruce slipped another slide in, brushing against her gently as he adjusted the slide to fit in perfectly. There was something….wrong….with these cells. They looked almost…green. Like they’d mutated subtly. They’re shape was off as well, bigger, the platelet making less of a curve and more of a straight line.

“I’m going to assume that these are the cells infected with gamma?”

“They are, you can see how they’ve mutated right? They’ve had a permanent change, even if you were to, say, take out this person’s blood and transfuse new blood, eventually it would all end up like this.”  
The platelets swam around in her vision until she pulled back biting her lip sharply as she did, “Is this person going to die? Can their blood even function like this?”\

“Die? Eventually sure, but function well,” he chuckled darkly, “that’s another question entirely.” He put the slides up carefully, “I’ve been trying to come up with something to reverse what you just saw.”

“Can you reverse something like that?” She watched his shoulders tense and got the feeling that there was more to what was going on than she was being told. Like there were two frames running and she didn’t have the proper equipment to view them both at once. “From what you said it’s not so much the blood anymore as the DNA. If that’s mutated, how do you,” she paused searching for words, “un-mutate it?”

“How indeed?” Bruce didn’t look at her for a long couple seconds. Her stomach churned a bit nervously, he really didn’t seem happy now, he was staring at the box containing the slides with the most intensely angered expression she’d ever seen on anyone’s face before. The lighting wasn’t helping any, the lights blaring down on him with their eerie glow gave his tan skin a faint cast of green, especially around the eyes. 

The moment was over almost as abruptly as it had started, he’d glanced down at his watch and an almost embarrassed expression had crossed his face.

“I’m sorry,” Bruce rubbed his wrist lightly, pressing down just enough that Kathryn could tell he was taking his pulse, “I just get really into my work. It’s a bad habit.”

“No I understand,” she did….a bit, “you’ve put a lot of time and effort into this. It makes sense that you’d be a bit intense about it.”

“Intense?” Bruce chuckled sheepishly, looking like a bashful little dork, “I guess that is the right word for it.”

“It is.” Kathryn smiled, she could get pretty carried away with her work too. She’d already decided to sweep the weird part of this whole thing under the rug. She was having a good time, he was smart and attractive, and she was probably just tired and making problems up in her head.

“I should probably take you back down now, I’ve wasted a good deal of your day.”

There it was again. He sounded like a kicked puppy, he really didn’t seem to have any confidence in the idea that she was having a good time with him. She thought he was having a good time too, then something would change and he’d retreat back like he thought she was going to beat him.

“Hey Bruce?”

“Yes?”

He looked at her curiously, brown eyes guarded and posture slumped in a bit. He probably thought she was going to yell at him or something. She really needed to muster up the courage to do this, they’d been phone flirting for nearly a week and she wasn’t a teenager anymore.

Kathryn reached up slowly and tugged his collar gently, pulling him down until her intent was clear. She moved up on her toes lips inches apart from his, tying to see if this was a mistake or not. His hand had made its way to the small of her back again, holding her to him firmly; she could feel his breath puff against her lips and oh did she want. He wasn’t saying no, but she wasn’t quite sure it was yes. To hell with it though, she’d made her intentions clear and had given him time to turn her down.

She kissed him softly, more of an awkward peck than an actual kiss. The angles were wrong, his head was the wrong way, and she wasn’t quite high enough to make it really work. It was nice though, his skin was warm and she could feel his stubble against her cheek. His fingers tightened at the small of her back, before he pulled her up and into a better angle, kissing her firmly. His lips moved across hers in light sipping pecks, keeping her supported as he deepened the contact between them. Her fingers found their way into his greying curls and they were gloriously soft as she wound her fingers through them leisurely.

It wasn’t a perfect kiss, he was still holding back a bit, and she hadn’t quite figured out what would make them lock together just right but it was wonderful. It was warm, and safe, and it curled low in her belly bubbling up into her being like champagne. 

Bruce pulled back slowly, stealing a few more unhurried kisses as he went. His rich brown eyes bore into hers as his arms circled her waist carefully.

“Thank you. I think,” he took a deep breath, resting his forehead on her shoulder and kissing the crook of her neck lightly, “I think I needed that.” 

His curls tickled her collar lightly, she ran her fingers through his hair soothingly, “We can do that again sometime right?” 

“I think we can work something out.” He looked up at her, “Come by the tower sometime this week. I’d ask you out to a proper dinner,” his hands roamed her back softly, “but I really dislike crowds and I can cook well. I’d rather just make you dinner than buy it for you.”

“Why Dr. Banner,” she flicked his shoulder playfully, somewhere in her mind aware of the fact that even a playful hit wouldn’t go over well, “are you inviting me to your place already? How forward.”

He pulled her down carefully and kissed her softly again, smiling against her lips, “I am. I hope you’re not opposed.”

“I’m not,” she thought for a moment, “It would have to be Thursday or Friday. I have projects due Tuesday that I have to have graded by Thursday morning, and Friday there’s no school.”

Bruce smiled warmly, kissing her forehead tenderly before nodding, “I can do Thursday. Unless Tony burns the tower down or the other Avengers make a mess of things.

“I forgot that you lived with them,” she shifted nervously, “I don’t know how you do it, I’m pretty star struck to be honest. You’ve met Captain America, my dad’s been in the military my whole life so he’s rather awe inspiring you know?” She smoothed her fingers over the light wrinkling in the fabric around his collar nervously, “They won’t make fun of you will they? Brining a teacher around? I mean….” She flushed brightly and looked at the floor, “I don’t do anything nearly as cool as you guys….”

Bruce held her close rocking her slightly, “You’re really self-conscious about that? Kathryn,” he laughed softly, cupping her cheeks gently, “I think you’re amazing. You have nothing to be ashamed of, what you do is just as important as what any of us do, if not more.” He ran his thumbs over her cheeks soothingly, “I’d be happy to have you on my arm anywhere you know that? It’s not just me either, Tony thinks you’re amazing as well.”

“Okay,” she nodded slowly smile growing on her face, “Thursday it is then.”

“I can’t wait.”


End file.
